The present invention relates in general to provisioning telephone services over an IP network. More specifically, present invention relates to a provisioning system for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services in a customer care environment.
The increasing popularity of high-speed data (HSD) service over cable presents a significant challenge to cable operators to provision customers with the HSD services they desire. Revenue opportunities in the cable industry have evolved along multiple paths as cable-based services and supporting technologies have matured. Video services have evolved from analog and digital video to advanced video services including interactive TV and video-on-demand (VOD). In the past, a few companies dominated HSD services with multiple system operators (MSOs) providing local distribution. Many cable companies are now moving aggressively to provide their own internal HSD networks, including access to multiple Internet service providers (ISPs). Cable telephony is progressing from secondary and primary line service using circuit-switched technologies to a full range of VoIP-based telephony services, offering custom features and advanced intelligent network services that rival, and in many aspects exceed, those offered by the incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).
Typically, cable operators have maintained separate work centers, support systems and skilled technicians for video, HSD and, more recently, telephony. New services have been introduced over time, often with separate back office ordering, billing, dispatch and provisioning platforms. However, the convergence of these services within an IP-based environment makes this operational model inefficient and ineffective. One catalyst for changing this model is the increasing popularity of VoIP telephony, which shares common IP network infrastructure and customer premises equipment with high-speed data services.
With the passage of the Telecommunications Act (“the Act”) of 1996, an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), the regulated entity that owns and administers an existing access network must provide to a requesting telecommunications carrier (the “competitive local exchange carrier” or “CLEC”) nondiscriminatory access to network elements on an unbundled basis and allow CLECs to combine such network elements in order to provide telecommunications service. ILECs also have a duty to provide to CLECs interconnection with their network for the transmission and routing of telephone exchange service and exchange access. The interconnection contemplated by the Act provides nondiscriminatory access or interconnection to such services or information as are necessary to allow the requesting CLEC to implement local dialing parity, including nondiscriminatory access to telephone numbers, operator service, directory assistance, and directory listing, with no unreasonable dialing delays.
The provisions of the Act have demonstrated a need for competing exchange carriers to be interconnected so that customers can seamlessly receive calls that originate on another carrier's network and place calls that terminate on another's carrier's network without performing additional activities, such as dialing extra digits, etc. A cable provider desiring to provide VoIP services directly to customers either acts as a CLEC or partners with a CLEC.
In the circuit switched environment, the ILEC receives a local service request (LSR) from a CLEC providing service to a customer. The LSR provides detailed data regarding the customer, the CLEC (if applicable) and the services desired by the customer.
Circuit-switched and VoIP telephony back office operations for primary line service may require several days of preparation prior to, during, and after the day of install, including:                Communications with the customer's ILEC;        Preparation and implementation of directory listing and directory assistance records;        Preparation and implementation of the E911 record;        Preparation and implementation of the line information database record;        Preparation and transmittal of the Customer Account Record Exchange (CARE) record to the interexchange carrier;        Calling number update to the calling number database;        Provisioning of customer line(s) and associated features in the cable operator's circuit switch or softswitch; and        Porting of the customer's existing telephone number from the existing local exchange carrier to the cable operator's circuit switch or softswitch (also referred to as a media gateway controller).        
A softswitch is a device that is used to bridge a traditional PSTN and VoIP by linking PSTN to IP networks and managing traffic that contains a mixture of voice, fax, data and video. Softswitches are able to process signaling for a number of packet protocols.
Portability refers to whether a telephone number (TN) assigned by a local exchange carrier (referred to as the “donor network”) can be used by a customer who moves to a different local exchange carrier. TNs are assigned from a number range assigned to the donor network. The current service provider (new SP), or new serving network, is the network that currently serves the ported number. The old serving network (or old SP) is the network that previously served the ported number before the number was ported to the new serving network. Since a TN can port a number of times, the old SP is not necessarily the same as the donor network, except for the first time the TN ports away, or when the TN ports back into the donor network and away again.
The process of interacting with the ILEC often results in delays in processing VoIP service orders and results in multiple service calls to a customer's location. Typically, during an initial service appointment, the cable modem is installed leaving the customer with dial tone for outgoing calls only. So, even if the customer had dial tone after the first visit, the customer would not have services such as 911 support; directory list service, and long distance service. After the completion of the ILEC process, a second service appointment is scheduled to finalize the provisioning of the VoIP phone service.
In a typical cable environment, the provisioning of VoIP requires that a prospective VoIP customer be an HSD customer. If the prospective VoIP customer is not a current HSD customer, but wants to become one, an order for cable HSD service must be written. Additionally, the VoIP order cannot yet be processed until the potential VoIP customer is in the customer database. In many systems, this data is acquired from the billing system once a day. The billing system data is “dumped” to a customer database through a one-way interface. This process generally precludes flow through provisioning of VoIP service in coordination with ILECs and internal cable system entities and precludes customer self-provisioning and on-demand services.
What is needed is a provisioning system that enables rapid deployment of new products and services. Such a provision system would contain a single integration point to support changes to back office systems, have a standardized highly available architecture to support all provisioning, provide flow through provisioning to eliminate account updates via batch files, scale to meet the growth of the business, and minimize direct CSR interaction.